Help Chip Holland Find Answers and Healing

Hi, my name is Piper Holland. I’m hoping to raise money for my dad, Chip Holland, who is in stage D heart failure (the last stage). Let me give you our story:

In December 2023, Chip tripped over the dog and hurt his shoulder. Even though he hates going to the doctor, he went ahead and saw an orthopedic doctor. They discovered he had torn his labrum, bicep, and rotator cuff, which required surgery to repair. That surgery took place in January 2024.

The surgery went well. He came home that night and began recovery. A month later, in February, he began experiencing what we have now called episodes for lack of a better term. These episodes included tremors on his entire right side of the body. We consulted with several doctors, which started us on this journey.

He’s had MRIs, EKGs, CT scans, several ER visits, bloodwork, and symptoms that have increased.

At one of his appointments, we discovered that his surgery was done in what is called the beach chair position. After finding this out, we ended up in the ER again because he was having another episode. The ER doctor took it upon himself after we left to research the beach chair position that we talked about. He called us within an hour and suggested my dad start taking baby aspirin because the beach chair position can cause strokes. We then went down a path thinking he was having strokes and all of the symptoms that come with it. This led to more ER visits, more doctor’s visits, more questions, and no answers. Each new visit and new blood work showed different scenarios or causes. Each time they treated symptoms but couldn’t find a cause.

Finally, in June 2024, we landed in a cardiology office due to an EKG that came back abnormal. This led to heart monitors and more visits. At that time, the heart monitors showed infrequent PVCs (extra heartbeats). The cardiologist said it wasn’t a huge concern for most people but can be dealt with if it becomes concerning. Next up was an echocardiogram and a stress echo in August.

This alerted the cardiologist to a more severe problem, causing them to choose not to perform the stress echocardiogram.

At the end of August, they performed a heart cath to discover his PVCs had increased from 9% to 90%.

He also had one artery blocked at 60% and an ejection fraction of 30-35%.

This led to the diagnosis of stage D heart failure, as it was a global heart issue, not just one problem. He had a procedure to attempt to lower the amount of PVCs, which they had to stop because they were too close to his conduction line. They also found pulmonary hypertension, which causes him to not be able to go on planes or anything that can cause extra pressure on his heart.

Because of the rapid decline, doctors suspected a disorder called amyloidosis. He was tested for the genetic type and the wild type and discovered that it is not either of those. Unfortunately, that leads us here.

He’s cut back at work, but it’s not helping.

We met our deductibles for insurance at the beginning of the year but are still nowhere near an answer. As we are nearing the end of this year, we are going to have to restart our deductibles. With four current cardiologists, two neurologists, and a family physician that specializes in cardiology, we are looking to find answers elsewhere. With the possibility of him going on short-term disability, financially looking elsewhere is not possible. This is why we are asking for your help. Each of his conditions that he has been diagnosed with has different life expectancies and different medicines that he has been prescribed, so we feel we are back to square one.

We would greatly appreciate any help anyone is willing to offer, even if it’s just a possibility of an answer.